80 Wise Quotes About Taking Things For Granted

When do we stop appreciating what we have and start taking everything for granted? Is it when we are being spoiled as a child? Or when we get too comfortable in a relationship? This collection of 80 wise quotes about taking things for granted will highlight different cases and opinions about losing the sense of thankfulness.

Hopefully, these quotes will give you a new perspective on life and inspire you to adopt an attitude of gratitude.

Why do we take things for granted?

The human brain is designed to convert repetitive activities into automatic habits. Physiologically, this helps us free enough resources essential for survival, as the heavy load of all the habitual tasks is lifted from the conscious mind and put into the subconscious. Thus, a conscious mind can focus on more important tasks, like assessing the potentially life-threatening risks in real time, finding solutions to problems, and having meaningful conversations.

A side effect of this is that we often start to mindlessly take everything that is part of our daily routine for granted. Why? Because we don’t stop to question things that already work smoothly in our lives.

Whenever we accomplish or receive something good, we automatically assume that it’s going to stay with us forever. We easily get used to positive things when they are part of our daily life, hardly ever considering that having them might be a privilege.

There are two occasions that might make us realize how lucky we are and start appreciating what we have. One is when we lose something we treated as everlasting. Another is when we meet someone who doesn’t have what we have, which is often the case with travelers and volunteers who work with underprivileged communities.

The more we understand how precious things we have are, the less we take them for granted. It’s not only material things, it’s also things like good health, kindness, freedom, and relationships.

This collection of inspirational quotes on taking things for granted covers all of these and more, so let’s jump straight into reading them!

Best quotes about taking things for granted

1. When you take things for granted, you diminish their importance and may even jeopardize their very existence. – Frank Sonnenberg

2. People don’t notice the things we do for them until we stop doing them. – Mike Skinner

3. Happiness is a simple game of lost and found: Lose the things you take for granted, and you will feel great happiness once they are found. – Richelle E. Goodrich

4. The surest way to make someone’s entire day is a simple act of gratitude. – James Hilton

5. I always was one who didn’t take things for granted. But I think I do appreciate things more now. The small moments of joy that we find each day are so much more precious now than when I looked at them before. – Chris LeDoux

6. Happiness isn’t something you should take for granted. It should be savored, because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. – Alisha Rai

7. We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. – Cynthia Ozick

8. The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. – Henry Ward Beecher

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Short quotes about not taking life for granted

These short but meaningful quotes will help you be thankful every day and not take your life for granted.

9. Take not a minute for granted, because that minute can never be replaced. – Melody Carstairs

10. Things you may take for granted, other people are praying for. – Marlan Rico Lee

11. Never take today for granted, tomorrow might never come. – Matt Vella

12. Feel what it’s like to truly starve, and I guarantee that you’ll forever think twice before wasting food. – Criss Jami

13. I may not be where I want to be but I’m thankful for not being where I used to be. – Habeeb Akande

14. Opportunities lost occur through taking things for granted. – Steven Redhead

15. At times in life we take our blessings for granted. – Angel Moreira

16. Life is too good to be taken for granted. – Lailah Gifty Akita

Famous quotes about not taking things for granted

People who achieve big things in life usually know the power of gratitude well, especially if they overcame a long path of failures and losses. Let’s see what some famous personalities have to say about not taking things for granted!

17. Gratefulness makes us aware of the gift and makes us happy. As long as we take things for granted they don’t make us happy. Gratefulness is the key to happiness. – David Steindl-Rast

18. Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. – Aldous Huxley

19. Life is full of blessings we take for granted. Yet so often we dwell on what we don’t have. Appreciate what you already have and be grateful. – Napz Cherub Pellazo

20. Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey

21. The more often we see the things around us – even the beautiful and wonderful things – the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds – even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

22. I’ve noticed people often complain about the monotony of life. How sometimes every day is just like the last and they all blend together. Do they know how lucky they are? But maybe that’s the problem with a smooth pleasant routine, you begin taking it for granted. – Cheryl Diamond

23. When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. – Gilbert K. Chesterton

24. Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours. – Marcus Aurelius

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Funny quotes about taking things for granted

Life shouldn’t be taken for granted but it also shouldn’t be taken too seriously. We only have one life, might as well have some fun along the way and attract as much joy as we can. These are some funny take-for-granted quotes to make you giggle.

25. Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk. – Rumi

26. Things you take for granted… get taken. – Unknown

27. Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. – Unknown

28. Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches. – Richelle E. Goodrich

29. We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. – William Vaughn

30. Appreciate what you have before it turns into what you had. – Unknown

31. Life is a one-time offer, use it well. – Unknown

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Take-for-granted quotes about relationships

It’s easy to take someone who loves us for granted but a little gesture of gratitude can go a long way. Research shows that people who feel appreciated tend to stay with you longer, both in personal relationships and at work. These positive quotes will all tell you to not take the best people in your life for granted:

32. Don’t take for granted the effort of a person who tries to keep in touch. It’s not always that someone cares so much. – Charles F. Glassman

33. Make yourself a little harder to get. Knowing you’re available all the time is the invitation to be taken for granted. – Sarvesh Jain

34. Don’t take me for granted. I know more than I let on, see more than you realize, and care more than you can imagine. – Charles F. Glassman

35. Let them miss you. Sometimes when you’re always available, they take you for granted because they think you’ll always stay. – Moosa Rahat

36. Paying attention is the bedrock opposite of taking for granted, which is a major cause of death of long relationships. – Sam Keen

37. Hanging with people who make you feel unappreciated, for the mere sake of appearing to be popular, is the loneliest place to be. – Ellen J. Barrier

38. Two people being strangers can be the best relationship. They tend to value what they do for each other more and they can leave when they think they are being taken for granted. – Nitya Prakash

39. Learn to love them indefinitely without making them lose your respect because when you love someone selflessly, they often tend to take your love for granted. – Sarvesh Jain

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Quotes about taking someone for granted

Whether you are someone who realized you have been taking your people for granted, or someone who feels being taken for granted, you’ll surely find some relatable words among these quotes.

40. Don’t take people for granted. No matter how much they love you, people get tired eventually. We are all given chances, but you never know when the last chance may be. – Unknown

41. The least we each ought to do for someone who treats us like a king or a queen is to treat them like a prince or a princess. – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

42. We tend to take things for granted that we’ve had for long periods of time. Take a moment to appreciate the person in your life. Realize why you are with them. Take a moment with them and really be in that moment completely. – Pandora Boxx

43. One day I woke up and realized no amount of love, care, pain, hurt, anger, or retribution could ever transform those who are evil into good or kind people. That day I let go; I stopped caring for them, gave up any hope for their souls, and knew they were never worthy of me or my time. – Ken Poirot

44. People who take you for granted would be mad at those who regard you as something. – Michael Bassey Johnson

45. Being taken for granted can be a compliment. It means that you’ve become a comfortable, trusted element in another person’s life. – Joyce Brothers

46. Most of the people who don’t express much are the ones who are too afraid of being taken for granted. – Nitya Prakash

47. I wish it weren’t the case but the people you love the most are the ones that take you for granted, especially when you care too much and give them your best. – Sai Pradeep

Wise quotes about taking nothing for granted

Being grateful for the little things you have makes you a happier person. These quotes will remind you to take nothing for granted because tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Make sure to enjoy life and all the things in it while you can!

48. We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. – Thomas Fuller

49. Sometimes we spend so much time and energy thinking about where we want to go that we don’t notice where we happen to be. – Dan Gutman

50. In a very tragic kind of way, sometimes things have to be gone before I fully realize that they were ever there. – Craig D. Lounsbrough

51. It’s human nature to start taking things for granted again when danger isn’t banging loudly on the door. – David Hackworth

52. Every day that we allow ourselves to take things for granted, every day that we allow some little physical infirmity or worldly worry to come between us and our obstinate, indignant, defiant exultation, we are weakening our genius for life. – John Cowper Powys

53. Sometimes we focus so much on what we don’t have that we fail to see, appreciate, and use what we do have! – Jeff Dixon

54. The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity. – Edward de Bono

55. When something does not insist on being noticed, when we aren’t grabbed by the collar or struck on the skull by a presence or an event, we take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. – Cynthia Ozick

56. Never take anything for granted. – Benjamin Disraeli

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Quotes about taking health for granted

A sick person knows to never take good health for granted. A healthy person who was never seriously ill can be clueless until something bad happens. If you are lucky to be a healthy one, don’t wait for something bad to happen! Stop taking your health for granted and appreciate every minute of being alive and well!

57. Don’t take your health for granted. Don’t take your body for granted. Do something today that communicates to your body that you desire to care for it. Tomorrow is not promised. – Jada Pinkett Smith

58. It is very easy to take for granted the phenomenon that we are each alive, but we must try not to. – Alex Grey

59. I have not been that wise. Health I have taken for granted. Love I have demanded, perhaps too much and too often. As for money, I have only realized its true worth when I didn’t have it. – Hedy Lamarr

60. Health is the greatest of God’s gifts, but we take it for granted; yet it hangs on a thread as fine as a spider’s web and the tiniest thing can make it snap, leaving the strongest of us helpless in an instant. – Jennifer Worth

61. You sit in a hospital’s emergency area and realize how goddamn valuable health and life is – something so many of us takes for granted. – Nitya Prakash

62. You can’t take good health for granted. – Jack Osbourne

63. Yet food is something that is taken for granted by most world leaders despite the fact that more than half of the population of the world is hungry. – Norman Borlaug

64. He who enjoys good health is rich, though he knows it not. – Italian Proverb

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Kindness taken for granted quotes

In our less-than-peaceful world, where so many horrible things happen every day, nobody should take kindness for granted. Appreciate every person who is nice to you, and do your share of kind deeds now and then. Here are the best quotes about taking kindness for granted:

65. Kindness should never be taken for granted because even the nicest people have their limits! – Unknown

66. We will have to give up taking things for granted, even the apparently simple things. – John Desmond Bernal

67. Not everyone will appreciate what you do for them. You have to figure out who’s worth your kindness and who’s just taking advantage of you. – Unknown

68. If your kindness is being taken for granted, don’t be kind. It’s never worth letting anyone use you, as and when required. If it happens, it’s better to lose a few people, because not everyone you lose is a loss. – Nikhil Jain

69. Even the smallest tender mercy can bring peace when recognized and appreciated. – Richelle E. Goodrich

70. Never take anyone for granted. Never take anyone’s kindness for their weakness. What’s once yours could easily turn into a memory. – Rita Zahara

71. Ah, kindness. What a simple way to tell another struggling soul that there is love to be found in the world. – A. A. Malee

72. Let them remain in awe of you. Once you allow them to get too close, they forget, you aren’t supposed to be taken for granted. – Nitya Prakash

Quotes about taking freedom for granted

Living in the 21st century, we don’t always realize that freedom is a great privilege. These inspiring quotes will remind you to not take your freedom for granted:

73. Freedom is like health, it is taken for granted while one has it. One becomes aware of it when it has gone. – Henry Wallich

74. Freedom can never be taken for granted. Each generation must safeguard it and extend it. Your parents and elders sacrificed much so that you should have freedom without suffering what they did. Use this precious right to ensure that the darkness of the past never returns. – Nelson Mandela

75. Along with freedom also comes responsibility. Let us never forget that. Let us never take our freedom for granted. – Unknown

76. One of the main reasons that we lose our enthusiasm in life is because we become ungrateful. We let what was once a miracle become common to us. We get so accustomed to his goodness that it becomes a routine. – Joel Osteen

77. Patterning your life around others’ opinions is nothing more than slavery. – Lawana Blackwell

78. It is dangerous to take human freedom for granted, to regard it as a prerogative rather than as an obligation, as an ultimate fact rather than as an ultimate goal. It is the beginning of wisdom to be amazed at the fact of our being free. – Abraham Joshua Heschel

79. There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere. – Nelson Mandela

80. If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Final thoughts about taking things for granted

These were 80 quotes on taking things for granted. I hope they inspire you to not be an ungrateful person and to show your appreciation to people however you see fit. From spreading positive vibes all around you to giving your favorite people unexpected positive energy gifts to performing random acts of kindness, there are tons of ways to let someone know you value and appreciate them.

As for appreciating things in your life more, you may get a gratitude journal with daily prompts or try my free 7-day gratitude challenge to step into the feeling of thankfulness!